Vt. man charged in Hinsdale woman’s assault

By MEGHAN PIERCEUnion Leader CorrespondentJanuary 30. 2014 9:15PMWINCHESTER — A Hinsdale woman struck by a pickup truck during a domestic violence incident Saturday was released from the hospital Thursday.

David J. Sage, 53, of Vernon, Vt., was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated, first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and reckless conduct, said Police Chief Gary Phillips on Thursday.

He is accused of striking Debbie Quinn, 52, of Hinsdale, with his GMC pickup truck in a River Court driveway early Saturday morning.

Police were called to respond to a River Court house Saturday around 1:15 a.m. for a report of a woman struck and pushed into a snowbank by a dark-colored GMC truck driven by her boyfriend, Phillips said.

While en route, police encountered a vehicle meeting that description on Route 10 and pulled it over, while also calling in Swanzey police to respond to the house.

Sage failed a field sobriety test, and his blood-alcohol-content lead to his arrest for aggravated driving while intoxicated, Phillips said.

Sage was held in the Cheshire County House of Corrections on $20,000 cash bail. He was released on $5,000 cash after his Monday arraignment in the 8th Circuit Court District Division in Keene.

Phillips said Sage and Quinn were boyfriend and girlfriend and that Quinn was at a party in Winchester on Saturday.

“It’s my understanding they had some problem with their relationship, and they weren’t together at the party,” Phillips said. “He went to the party to get her, and she didn’t want to leave with him, and it went south from there.”

They were fighting outside of the house when Sage allegedly struck Quinn with his truck, Phillips said.

“He put it in drive and hit her with the front end of the truck,” he said. “In a rage, he put it in drive, spun his wheels and plowed into her.”

Quinn was seriously injured and was taken to Cheshire Medical Center in Keene and then taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

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